Black Congress Storms Out Of Ghoulsfest

Earlier today, Black Congress said that the band would not be performing as previously scheduled at Ghoulsfest, Houston's newest music festival taking place at Pearland's Tom Bass Park next Saturday and featuring Bad Brains, Macy Gray and many local acts. The band announced its departure from the event in a heated statement on its Facebook page:

"Black Congress will not be playing Ghoulsfest. We're not into people telling us what to do with our band. Fuck them."

Details as to the exact nature of the dispute between the group and the Ghoulsfest team are sketchy. Within minutes of Black Congress' post, Ghoulsfest publicist Gina Rotolo sent Rocks Off the following statement:

"As of this afternoon, the Black Congress [sic] has issued a statement online via Facebook letting GhoulsFest know they are not going to play the festival. We are in compliance with their request and have removed them from the lineup and all future materials. We are excited about the festival and all the participating bands are looking forward to playing on October 30th."

Hector Del Valle, one of the main creative forces behind the event, pleaded with the band in the comments section of the statement for an explanation, citing previous good relations. Black Congress' response:

It's pretty simple man. You asked us to play your show, then found out we were playing the day before (in a different city than your show, to a crowd that wouldn't have been interested in your fest anyway), and told us we had to choose between playing your show or that show. We chose to play the show of the promoter who didn't tell us how to run our band.

Followup emails to Black Congress revealed that the band had actually cancelled a month previously due to the aforementioned scheduling conflicts. However, the band said that Ghoulsfest's marketing team was posting links to buy tickets to the event on Black Congress' Facebook page that stated the band was still performing, prompting them to post a notice to fans that they were not attending.